We typically specify materials in terms of properties—texture, integrity, assembly—which, once classified and catalogued, are perceived as static and reliable. But the attitudes, understandings, and fashions that influence how we measure a material’s value are fickle, so the ways we define and relate to a material are also an evaluation of our own contingent cultural values. Materials are not anonymous, they are not (only) abstractions, and they are not just what you build with. The stories in this issue are stories of unanticipated consequences, misguided optimisms, everyday hypocrisies, and untapped possibilities. By excavating the immaterial and tangential implications of use we trace the power of a material to calibrate our relationships, be they distant or intimate, with the world.

One Word: Plastic(s)

Presentations by Greg Lynn and Yung Ho Chang

In 2008, Greg Lynn and Yung Ho Chang participated in a discussion as part of our “Urgency” series, in which we asked architects to define the issues that were most urgent in architecture (at least at the time). They ended up both talking about plastic—sort of. The videos that follow are excerpts from their presentations and the discussion that followed, moderated by Mirko Zardini.